Speeches by Bool.

“Why did the Government take down their own tweet about it? I then thought, “Hold on a minute. Have they reversed the policy?” I could not find anything more.”

“That is the only source that I have heard. It may be sensible to come off Twitter, but that would be the big plug.”

“Perhaps you can report back to us and tell us if you see it.”

“I just really wanted to make a push on that, because it is actually very unnerving that, eight weeks out, we do not know for definite. Everything you have said is, “We think”, or, “We believe”. You either have to make a decision now or postpone it again. You have had long enough. You have postponed it since January; it…”

“They have said that they have had no communication, and July is only eight weeks away. Are you going to postpone it again or not? It is fair to say that now you should know, and they deserve to have that certainty.”

“You have the EU meetings on 19 May, then there will be further discussions. What is happening?”

“It was in terms of the indication with the other Departments. It is across Departments, so I am asking what the feeling of other Departments is at the moment? Are they happy that they are ready to start on 1 July?”

“Again, you are cutting a bit too close and too fine to time for this. We cannot keep saying as an excuse that you are having other discussions. The market needs to know.”

“May I associate myself with the comments about the passing of Pope Francis? As a Catholic, I very much appreciate them, and I wish the best to the conclave in selecting our new Pope. As was mentioned earlier, if the current trend continues, more than 1.5% of my constituency will be covered in solar farms. One of my mai…”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Julia Lopez) for securing this most important debate. When thinking about the debate, I looked up some quotes on hair. My favourite was, “Invest in your hair: it is the crown you never take off.” That is a very true sentiment, although I apologise to the m…”

“The Royal College of General Practitioners in Northern Ireland has said that the hike in national insurance contributions will be catastrophic for GP surgeries. With many practices teetering on the edge, why are Ministers not doing more to talk to their colleagues in the Treasury?”

“5. What assessment he has made of the impact of the autumn Budget 2024 on Northern Ireland.”

“Today marks the 43rd anniversary of the start of the war in the Falklands—another key overseas territory. Government Members keep referring to the non-binding advisory judgment as the basis of the Chagos deal. If the Argentinians were to seek a similar judgment against the Falklands, would the Minister cede control?”

“It is a catastrophe for farmers, though, Minister.”

“It is nowhere near to this.”

“I struggle a little with the SFI and the fact that there was that six-week window. Although you say that people should have known, obviously a lot of people say that they were absolutely shocked and stunned. What I do not understand is that in any other business, when you see the budget getting close, you start to take…”

“The message I am getting there is that planning is absolutely key. We know that that is the case for farmers, but I feel that at this current moment in time they will all be shouting that there was no consultation about the changes to APR and BPR before they came into effect. They have had national insurance hikes, a t…”

“Just finally, as well as setting quota and arrangements for access to waters, the EU-UK agreement requires co-operation on all aspects of fishery management. What further improvements could be made to help UK fishers?”

“I am conscious, as you said, that it is coming to an end in June 2026. What sort of assurances can you give that all these discussions and arrangements with the EU will be finalised in time for setting the quotas for 2026?”

“What does that look like? My concern is that the French will be very keen to have a bit more of a relaxed or different arrangement than they currently have. What sort of guarantees or reassurances can you give us, other than that you want to get the best deal, that you will actually get the best deal for our fisheries …”